How fast (in how many days) can you realistically finish Sophia, etc. or WGU course?

[whiverem]

How fast can you finish a Sophia, Study.com, etc. or a course with WGU if you spend all your waking time on it? How many hours could a single course at these places take, assuming you have average intelligence? Thank you.

[rachel83az]

It depends on the course and your prior knowledge. Some Sophia classes take just a single 8-10 hour day, assuming minimal breaks and some basic knowledge. Some have lengthy Touchstones that will require a day or two each to complete, plus time for grading. Most courses are going to be somewhere in between.

For Study.com, you need to be able to pass the quizzes to 100% as fast as possible, while retaining enough information to get a good score (55% or more if there are no assignments) on the exam. If there are assignments, you may be able to pass with as low as 10-15% on the final exam, provided the assignments receive a high enough grade. Most SDC courses can probably be completed in 1-2 weeks.

[whiverem]

It depends on the course and your prior knowledge. Some Sophia classes take just a single 8-10 hour day, assuming minimal breaks and some basic knowledge. Some have lengthy Touchstones that will require a day or two each to complete, plus time for grading. Most courses are going to be somewhere in between.

For Study.com, you need to be able to pass the quizzes to 100% as fast as possible, while retaining enough information to get a good score (55% or more if there are no assignments) on the exam. If there are assignments, you may be able to pass with as low as 10-15% on the final exam, provided the assignments receive a high enough grade. Most SDC courses can probably be completed in 1-2 weeks.

Okay, thank you.

[origamishuttle]

Most SDC courses can probably be completed in 1-2 weeks.

It can definitely be faster when optimizing for speed. Given that most courses have more than 500 quiz questions, the material is largely redundant, so I skip it. I spend most of my time on getting 100% within the first three attempts for quizzes and then go directly into the final exam without extra studying if possible. For any quizzes with four or more wrong answers on the first attempt, I add the questions to a text file to review before the final.

For WGU courses, I never opened any of their materials. I only took the preassessment to get an idea for the exam (objective assessment or OA), and then used outside materials to study, like Udemy or Quizlet. For papers/projects (performance assessments or PAs), I would scaffold them out from the requirements/rubric and fill in the blanks. It's low pressure because there are unlimited attempts for PAs, although I always tried to be fairly complete on my first attempt, so I only had a couple that were returned for small corrections.

[ss20ts]

For WGU courses, I never opened any of their materials. I only took the preassessment to get an idea for the exam (objective assessment or OA), and then used outside materials to study, like Udemy or Quizlet. For papers/projects (performance assessments or PAs), I would scaffold them out from the requirements/rubric and fill in the blanks. It's low pressure because there are unlimited attempts for PAs, although I always tried to be fairly complete on my first attempt, so I only had a couple that were returned for small corrections.

And I'm doing the exact opposite at WGU. I read every document in the course. I watch every single video. I don't take my Pre-Assessments until I've read everything and watched all of the videos. I attend the cohorts for my classes and review everything emailed to me by the CI after the meeting. The strategy above may work for some undergrad courses in which you have some knowledge. I'm in grad school and this methodology would not work in my program. People attempt it all the time and their work gets kicked back to them multiple times which causes further delays. You are supposed to be learning something. If you already know the material that's one thing, but if it's all new to you and you just try to wing, chances are high that it won't go very well for you.

[origamishuttle]

I read every document in the course. I watch every single video.

This should vary with every course. Even in instances where the WGU material is needed, it may not be enough to pass, or a small portion of the material could be weighted more heavily. In those cases, outside material or study guides can focus your effort more efficiently.

People attempt it all the time and their work gets kicked back to them multiple times which causes further delays.

Getting your work kicked back is not necessarily a delay if you have something else to work on while you wait for evaluation. However, if you base your work on the requirements/rubric, it should minimize how many times your work gets returned. And it should only be returned multiple times for the parts specified by the original evaluator, so that further minimizes the possibility.

You are supposed to be learning something. If you already know the material that's one thing, but if it's all new to you and you just try to wing, chances are high that it won't go very well for you.

This is a question of goals versus requirements. WGU is the ultimate competency-based education, so putting in the absolute minimum effort to pass is all that's required. I had to study and learn for every course I completed at WGU, and in most cases I learned more than was needed. This was mostly for tests, as students are often required to complete a large amount of busywork to get approval for retesting, so overshooting is actually a time-saving strategy. It's a laudable goal to learn for the sake of improving yourself, although trusting the course material is not the best strategy for that either.

Whatever the goal, I recommend building your own curriculum for each course to meet that goal. If the course has been around for some time, then reddit will often have good information to help you strategize what will work best for you. If the course is newer, then more research may be needed. In any case, I would be reluctant to rely on only the course material.

[dfrecore]

Most SDC courses can probably be completed in 1-2 weeks.

Most are less time than that.

Also, keep in mind that there may be overlap between courses, which will shorten many of them.  For instance, if you take both Vietnam War courses, there is a TON of overlap - so the UL course is basically the written assignment(s), with very little time spent on the quizzes.  This is the case for lots of courses there.  I would even recommend that if you're going to be doing a lot of Accounting courses for instance, you're better off doing Financial Accounting at SDC instead of Sophia specifically because of the overlap with the remaining courses.  The time spent doing Accounting 101 makes every other accounting course shorter (and in some cases MUCH shorter).  Again, this is the case for many things there.

[ss20ts]

I read every document in the course. I watch every single video.

This should vary with every course. Even in instances where the WGU material is needed, it may not be enough to pass, or a small portion of the material could be weighted more heavily. In those cases, outside material or study guides can focus your effort more efficiently.

People attempt it all the time and their work gets kicked back to them multiple times which causes further delays.

Getting your work kicked back is not necessarily a delay if you have something else to work on while you wait for evaluation. However, if you base your work on the requirements/rubric, it should minimize how many times your work gets returned. And it should only be returned multiple times for the parts specified by the original evaluator, so that further minimizes the possibility.

You are supposed to be learning something. If you already know the material that's one thing, but if it's all new to you and you just try to wing, chances are high that it won't go very well for you.

This is a question of goals versus requirements. WGU is the ultimate competency-based education, so putting in the absolute minimum effort to pass is all that's required. I had to study and learn for every course I completed at WGU, and in most cases I learned more than was needed. This was mostly for tests, as students are often required to complete a large amount of busywork to get approval for retesting, so overshooting is actually a time-saving strategy. It's a laudable goal to learn for the sake of improving yourself, although trusting the course material is not the best strategy for that either.

Whatever the goal, I recommend building your own curriculum for each course to meet that goal. If the course has been around for some time, then reddit will often have good information to help you strategize what will work best for you. If the course is newer, then more research may be needed. In any case, I would be reluctant to rely on only the course material.

In my program, there are several courses where you can only submit 1 task at a time and have to wait for the evaluation so if you get it sent back to you needing corrections multiple times, that's 3 days minimum each time you're sitting around with nothing to do. You cannot add another course. You can't move a course up. In my program, we have to go in course order and we can only have 1 course open at a time. Like I said, I'm in grad school so it's a bit different. 

I was just reading a thread on Facebook from someone in my program who is now struggling with one of the final courses before the Capstone because they didn't go through the course content. Several people commented that they didn't know where the material was covered and some didn't think it was ever covered. It was discussed in the first course in a 10 minute video. That 10 minute video turns out to be the key to the task in a course way in the future. By skipping material, many people did not know how to do this task or even where to look for info. And like many people no one reached out to the CI for clarification. I have no idea why people don't utilize the CI's. That's what they are there for! I haven't had one bite my head off. I've chatted with 3 so far and all have been extremely helpful. 

The whole point of college is to learn. That's no different at WGU or any CBE program. Yes, many people who enroll into CBE programs bring with them a great deal of knowledge from their work and life experience. They still learn something though. I have 20+ years of retail management and owning my own retail store. When I completed my BABA and my MBA, I already knew a great deal of info, yet I learned a great deal as well. Maybe most importantly, I learned a lot about myself which has been an interesting experience. Learning isn't all about being able to recite things you've learned. It's about putting it to use in some way.

[origamishuttle]

In my program, there are several courses where you can only submit 1 task at a time and have to wait for the evaluation so if you get it sent back to you needing corrections multiple times, that's 3 days minimum each time you're sitting around with nothing to do. You cannot add another course. You can't move a course up. In my program, we have to go in course order and we can only have 1 course open at a time. Like I said, I'm in grad school so it's a bit different. 

It seems that undergrads have it much easier. Flexibility and multiple courses open at the same time make a huge difference!

I was just reading a thread on Facebook from someone in my program who is now struggling with one of the final courses before the Capstone because they didn't go through the course content. Several people commented that they didn't know where the material was covered and some didn't think it was ever covered. It was discussed in the first course in a 10 minute video. That 10 minute video turns out to be the key to the task in a course way in the future. By skipping material, many people did not know how to do this task or even where to look for info.

Skipping material aside, I'm surprised that a degree program would be set up that way. Depending on the objective, that is either brilliant or very poor design, but I would lean toward the latter. Even if they wanted to introduce the concepts early, why not repeat them immediately before the related task to reinforce understanding and add much-needed clarity?

And like many people no one reached out to the CI for clarification. I have no idea why people don't utilize the CI's. That's what they are there for! I haven't had one bite my head off. I've chatted with 3 so far and all have been extremely helpful. 

In 17 courses I never needed to contact the CI for assistance, but I was able to get direction from discord or reddit if I was confused about a requirement. Also, I think I was moving too fast to engage with them. I had CIs reach out a couple times, but after I had already completed the course.

The whole point of college is to learn. That's no different at WGU or any CBE program. Yes, many people who enroll into CBE programs bring with them a great deal of knowledge from their work and life experience. They still learn something though. I have 20+ years of retail management and owning my own retail store. When I completed my BABA and my MBA, I already knew a great deal of info, yet I learned a great deal as well. Maybe most importantly, I learned a lot about myself which has been an interesting experience. Learning isn't all about being able to recite things you've learned. It's about putting it to use in some way.

Very well stated. Methods may vary, but I wholeheartedly agree that learning is always the point.

[ss20ts]

In my program, there are several courses where you can only submit 1 task at a time and have to wait for the evaluation so if you get it sent back to you needing corrections multiple times, that's 3 days minimum each time you're sitting around with nothing to do. You cannot add another course. You can't move a course up. In my program, we have to go in course order and we can only have 1 course open at a time. Like I said, I'm in grad school so it's a bit different. 

It seems that undergrads have it much easier. Flexibility and multiple courses open at the same time make a huge difference!

I was just reading a thread on Facebook from someone in my program who is now struggling with one of the final courses before the Capstone because they didn't go through the course content. Several people commented that they didn't know where the material was covered and some didn't think it was ever covered. It was discussed in the first course in a 10 minute video. That 10 minute video turns out to be the key to the task in a course way in the future. By skipping material, many people did not know how to do this task or even where to look for info.

Skipping material aside, I'm surprised that a degree program would be set up that way. Depending on the objective, that is either brilliant or very poor design, but I would lean toward the latter. Even if they wanted to introduce the concepts early, why not repeat them immediately before the related task to reinforce understanding and add much-needed clarity?

And like many people no one reached out to the CI for clarification. I have no idea why people don't utilize the CI's. That's what they are there for! I haven't had one bite my head off. I've chatted with 3 so far and all have been extremely helpful. 

In 17 courses I never needed to contact the CI for assistance, but I was able to get direction from discord or reddit if I was confused about a requirement. Also, I think I was moving too fast to engage with them. I had CIs reach out a couple times, but after I had already completed the course.

The whole point of college is to learn. That's no different at WGU or any CBE program. Yes, many people who enroll into CBE programs bring with them a great deal of knowledge from their work and life experience. They still learn something though. I have 20+ years of retail management and owning my own retail store. When I completed my BABA and my MBA, I already knew a great deal of info, yet I learned a great deal as well. Maybe most importantly, I learned a lot about myself which has been an interesting experience. Learning isn't all about being able to recite things you've learned. It's about putting it to use in some way.

Very well stated. Methods may vary, but I wholeheartedly agree that learning is always the point.